1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a sealing apparatus for a wafer carrier, and more particularly, to a sealing apparatus with interlocking air inflation device for a wafer carrier.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in order to avoid particle effect from affecting the normal operations of the wafer fabrication process and maintain a desired yield rate, the fabrication of the semiconductor wafer must be processed in a clean room with a very high level of cleanliness. Besides, in the clean room, a wafer carrier is used for storing and carrying semiconductor wafers, so as to avoid the semiconductor wafers from regularly exposing in the air, and prevent the semiconductor wafers from damage caused by an external force when the semiconductor wafers is shipped. Wherein the wafer carrier is conformed to the technology of Standard Mechanical Interface (SMIF) and the major benefit of such technology is to greatly reduce the requirement for a large-area clean room in the wafer fabrication process, and also lower the cost for the clean room and related equipments for maintaining a high level of clean air.
Moreover, with the progress of semiconductor process technology, 12-inch wafer factory is getting to become the major semiconductor wafer factory. In the 12-inch wafer factory, a Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP) is used as the wafer carrier for storing and carrying the semiconductor wafers. Please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrates a stereo view of a conventional FOUP wafer carrier. As shown in FIG. 1, the FOUP wafer carrier 1′ includes a wafer container 10′ and a cover 20′, wherein the wafer container 10′ has a plurality of slots 11′ adopted for accommodating a plurality of wafers, in addition, an opening 12′ is formed in one side of the wafer container 10′ for inputting and outputting the plurality of wafers.
Continuously referring to FIG. 1, the cover 20′ includes an outer surface 21′ and an inner surface 22′, wherein at least one latch mechanism (not shown in FIG. 1) is disposed on the outer surface 21′ of the cover 20′, used to open or close the cover 20′. The inner surface 22′ of the cover 20′ has a wafer restricting module 60′ with a plurality of wafer restricting members 600′. When the plurality of wafers are respectively put into the plurality of slots of the wafer container and the cover 20′ is closed the wafer container 10′, the restricting members 600′ are able to respectively confine the wafers for preventing the wafers from moving toward the opening 12′; Moreover, an O-ring 23′ is disposed around the edge of the inner surface 22′, used for sealing the FOUP wafer carrier 1′ when the cover 20′ is closed the wafer container 10′.
Thus, through the above descriptions, it is able to know that the main elements of the conventional FOUP wafer carrier; moreover, according to the above descriptions, it can also understand that the constitution of the FOUP wafer carrier 1′ is very simple, and the wafer restricting module 60′ in the FOUP wafer carrier 1′ can avoid wafers from moving toward and collide with the opening 12′. Therefore, for the FOUP wafer carrier 1′ includes the above advantages, it is widely used in the current 12-inch wafer 12-inch wafer factory.
However, the conventional FOUP wafer carrier 1′ still has an important drawback, that is, when the cover 20′ is closed the wafer container 20′, it is merely used the O-ring 23′ to seal up the cover 20′ and the wafer container 20′, and Such sealing way is still inadequate for the FOUP wafer carrier 1′. Accordingly, in view of the conventional sealing apparatus used in the wafer carrier still has shortcomings and drawbacks, the inventor of the present application has made great efforts to make inventive research thereon and eventually provided a sealing apparatus with interlocking air inflation device for a wafer carrier